Canara Bank on Friday said it has sold a 13.45% stake in its housing finance arm Can Fin Homes to Singapore-based Caladium Investment for R754 crore. Caladium Investment is an affiliate of GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.
Caladium Investment bought 35.80 lakh shares at a price of R2,105 apiece in an off-market deal. Canara Bank said in a filing to the exchanges that the decision to sell stake in its housing finance arm is part of its plan to monetise assets that are not core to its main lending business. In the quarter ended December 31, 2016, Can Fin Homes reported a net profit of R59.6 crore, compared with R42.18 crore a year ago. Revenue rose 24% year-on-year to R349.5 crore in the third quarter.

Shares of Can Fin Homes on Friday closed at R1977.65, an increase of 2.11% from the previous close. The stock has risen by 3.6% from February 14, when it informed Canara Bank’s decision to dilute its stake in the company to 30% by March 31, 2017, against the Sensex’s gain 2.08% during the period. A total of 1.12 lakh shares of the company were traded on the BSE and the NSE, 27.24% more than the 30-day average of 88,256 shares.